A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Sometimes the Mini-ITX form factor is forgotten about, especially in the shadows of its bigger brothers. But while some might associate Mini-ITX with low-powered computers for office workers', these days that's anything but true.

Case and point is this build from TheOriginalQ on Reddit's Build a PC subreddit. TheOriginalQ says that he wanted to move away from gaming laptops, and back to the power of a PC, but at the same time keep a small form factor too.

Thanks to the GIGABYTE GA-Z170N-Gaming 5 Mini-ITX board he was able to do that. The Z170N Gaming 5 Mini-ITX board supports Intel's® latest 6th Gen. Core™ processor, DDR 4, and USB 3.1. Combined with a Mini-ITX sized video card (which there are plenty of from Nvidia and AMD), this small form factor PC can push through any game you can throw at it.

Check out these photos, courtesy of TheOriginalQ:

But as TheOriginalQ mentions in his post, building a PC with such a small form factor is not without its challenges. The small form factor means its tough to fit everything inside, meaning the build took some careful pre-planning. Check out what he has to say about this challenge:

One of the toughest parts of this build was making everything was going to fit before I even purchased any of the parts. There is exactly 83mm of clearance between the top of the CPU and the edge of the case (thats not including the included case fan). This limited the selection of CPU coolers tremendously. There are plenty of heatsinks available, but the performance doesn't warrant the cost over a stock cooler. I ended up with the Noctua NH-L12. The full heatsink assembly when it comes out the box is 93mm tall, however, the neat thing about this heatsink is you can remove the top fan and it will work just fine with just the bottom 92mm fan, and it makes the total assembly only 66mm tall. Additionally, the layout of the case puts a 120mm fan directly over the CPU, so you can mount a slim (15mm thick) fan to the case blowing directly on the heatsink. This heatsink was almost made for this case.

In the end with a little patience TheOriginalQ was able to fit everything in the case. And despite the small form factor, the CPU and GPU coolers were still able to keep their respective components within tolerable ranges. TheOriginalQ reported that during burn testing the CPU was hitting 53°C to 55°C while the GPU was at 73°C to 74°C.

Of course, most importantly, it's able to play through the latest games with ease. Fallout 4 runs smooth as silk at 60fps on Ultra settings.

Friday, November 27, 2015

This year there have been some exciting advances this year in the world of connectivity, particularly the introduction of Thunderbolt™ 3 from Intel®. Thunderbolt™ 3, which uses the reversible USB Type-C connector, brings users a world of revolutionary new features including more bandwidth and support for 4K displays.

Thunderbolt™ 3 is designed for devices where high-bandwidth is of the utmost importance. Thunderbolt™ 3 is able to push up to 40 Gb/s through the wire, which is twice more than the previous generation. For display connectivity Thunderbolt™ 3 offers DisplayPort 1.2, which is able to drive a 4K resolution display at 60 FPS, power delivery for connected devices at up to 36W, as well as the ability to daisy-chain up to 6 devices per port.

Thunderbolt™ 3 makes USB Type-C the one port to rule them all. The days of requiring a plethora of different cables to power all of your devices are over. Now your external storage devices, monitor, and tablets/smartphones can all be connected to a hub which connects to your PC via a single USB Type-C connector.

No more of this with USB Type-C

As Thunderbolt™ 3 used the reversible USB Type-C connector, you can also plug in USB devices into the same port. For the billions of older devices that use the Standard-A connectors, adapters are available to ensure that your device will be compatible.

Monday, November 23, 2015

This Monday morning GIGABYTE tech specialists Sam and Janus hosted a livestream tutorial showing users how they can build their own PC. Many users had questions which Sam and Janus answered on the air.

If you missed the livestream you can watch it on YouTube down below:

Don't forget about tomorrow's (Tuesday) livestream where we'll take the system that we built and show you guys how to over how to do some basic overclocking.

Many people have questions about overclocking, and we are going to show you guys how simple, easy and fun it can be. We're going to use the same hardware we used for the PC build.
Here is the link to follow the live OC on Tuesday at 9am (UTC+8) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs6tTrI7cVk

We'll also announce the winners from today's Facebook raffle and give you guys another chance to win some great prizes!

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Thunderbolt 3 is one of the most exciting developments in I/O technology to date.

By pushing 40 Gb/s through the wire, Thunderbolt™ 3 provides an unprecedented amount of bandwidth to the end user. But that's not all. With Thunderbolt™ 3 you also get industry-leading features such as DisplayPort 1.2, which is able to drive a 4K resolution display at 60 FPS, power delivery for connected devices at up to 36W, as well as the ability to daisy-chain up to 6 devices per USB Type-C port.

Here at GIGABYTE, we recently released the Z170X-UD5 TH which brings Thunderbolt™ 3 connectivity to the Z170X Ultra Durable 5 motherboard. We sent a sample to TweakTown's Steven Bassiri and he was more than impressed with the board!

Here's what Steven liked about the board:

Thunderbolt 3 with Dual Type-C Ports: The Z170X-UD5 TH released a few weeks ago as the first Thunderbolt 3 certified motherboard. The controller that provides Thunderbolt 3 is also the same one that provides USB 3.1 and is the first USB-IF certified USB 3.1 controller. This Intel chip is very powerful, and when paired with proper USB Power Delivery 2.0 chips from TI can support up to 12 daisy chained devices, dual 4K monitors (or a single 5K monitor), and still provides up to 40Gbps of bandwidth. Needless to say, GIGABYTE implements the chip well and provides a Thunderbolt 3 implementation that is rare.

All Intel without Hubs: The circuit analysis I did on the Z170X-UD5 TH was one of the shortest I have ever done. This is because most everything on this board is powered directly through Intel chipsets. All eight USB 3.0 ports come directly from the PCH (2 more than standard FlexIO configurations). Networking is Intel. Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 also both come from an Intel controller. Compatibility with certified devices should be quite good, and headaches that sometimes arise from hubs should be nonexistent.

Overclocking Features: I was surprised to find voltage read points, a POST code display, and onboard buttons for overclocking. Usually, these features aren't found on motherboards targeted at workstations, but GIGABYTE made sure to include them to make tweaking more simple.

Aesthetics: GIGABYTE's recent gold/black/silver aesthetics has grown on me a little bit. The shade of gold they are using along with the yellow LEDs and gold audio capacitors matches quite well. The shields over the audio codec, NIC, and clock generator and the metal braces for the PCI-E slots create a theme that makes the motherboard look protected and equipped for hard work.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Next week's OC TV episode is sure to be a special one. GIGABYTE's very own Dino 'Dinos22' Strkljevic, our Australian Marketing Manager, will be on the show for an in-depth discussion on our overclocking-focused Z170X-SOC motherboard.

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

There is something magical about rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck into a custom PC build of your own. Every person has an interesting take on how to do it best and the greatest part is that there is no right or wrong way. That is what I personally love the most when I’ve done my own builds. I’ve shared them on social media and seen the praise and criticism. Nothing wrong with either.

I want to share a really interesting build for you today done by Hans Peder Sahl. I have to say, this video that I’ve come across is one of the finest looking works of custom PCs I have seen. If this doesn’t fire you up to try do something with your next PC build, I don’t know what will.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Every Overclocker has their favorite chipset that allows them to perform their best. This is why GIGABYTE is allowing overclockers to use whatever chipset they please in its next overclocking competition, Target OC: Open Target.

In this competition Overclockers will be tasked with hitting challenging targets in XTU and Geekbench 3 from November 8 until December 27. New targets will be revealed weekly, and users will be able to compete in both Extreme and Ambient categories. Overclockers are free to use any GIGABYTE motherboard and there are no restrictions on chipset.

We're giving away some big prizes for this contest that you don't want to miss out on. Contestants will have a chance to win awesome GIGABYTE prizes like GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming 3 and GIGABYTE Z170X-SOC FORCE motherboards as well as USD $250 for those that achieve a global first place. At the end of the contest there will be a lucky draw for USD $500 and a GIGABYTE Z170X-Gaming G1 motherboard.

The contest kicks off November 8. You can find out more information on HWBOT.

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Not everyone has the same budget when they are building a PC. While some enthusiasts might have be willing to spend a lot to ensure that they have the best that money can buy, others are on more modest budgets that require some restraint when purchasing parts.

GIGABYTE understands and has a number of motherboards geared towards users on a budget. Recently TweakTown's Steven Bassiri has a chance to review one of these boards, the GIGABYTE Z170XP-SLI, and gave it top marks.

For those that don't know, the Z170XP-SLI is a value-oriented board that has support for NVIDIA's SLI as well as AMD's CrossFireX technology. This means that the board will support more than one NVIDIA or AMD card, which is great for users that want the power that two video cards can provide.

Steven says he liked the SLI support on the board, solid memory support at 3600 MHz, upgraded audio, and Intel NIC on the board.

Here are his final thoughts on the board:

The Z170XP-SLI has a lot of the latest features I come to expect from a Z170 motherboard above the $150 price range; USB 3.1, upgraded audio, Intel NIC, solid performance, and decent overclocking capabilities. That being said, this motherboard only costs $136 on Amazon making it a very good deal for those on a budget.The Z170XP-SLI can perform like more expensive motherboards and even overclock like them in the right conditions, but producing those conditions might be difficult, and that is why people pay more for better overclocking.